Swine diets should be carefully crafted to meet the dietary needs of pigs. Knowing that fat is the most calorie-dense source of energy, it takes some research and calculation to create a diet that doesn’t rely on supplemental fat for energy.
It’s important to determine the nutrient conversion of ingredients in swine diets to ensure producers maximize net energy for their pigs. If fat sources become too expensive or suddenly unavailable on the market, what can be done as an alternative to providing the bulk of energy that pigs need?
The key is for producers to have good communication with their swine nutritionists and to adapt as quickly as possible so production is not sacrificed. For example, if producers reduce their supplemental fat approach and increase synthetic amino acids in return, they can backfill diets with corn, which helps significantly with net energy.
What Alternatives to Fat Exist?
Another avenue in replacing supplemental fat is pairing crystalline amino acids and enzyme inclusion. A proprietary enzyme cocktail drives the release of energy from diets resulting in more energy for production. Correct blends and ratios of enzymes release nutrients for peak performance.
At a time when grain commodity prices are at significant highs, it’s advantageous to know the return over feed cost. This evaluation can help determine if a producers’ payoff will come through using less fat.
Tradeoffs might also be made simply due to product availability in a certain area and the marketing schedule at stake. Beyond the usual sources of energy in swine diets—corn, soybean meal and distillers grains—alternatives like bakery meal or others might be an option if it makes sense from a price standpoint.
Energy Maximization Remains the Top Priority
Ralco focuses on incorporating technology into nutrition programs to emphasize nutrient conversion. If a producer wants to shift their nutrition plans to rely less on fat for energy, whether it’s due to price or availability, it is necessary to incorporate and adapt the energy concept into nutrition planning. This is where Ralco’s nutrition experts come into play.
The technology of choice is EnMAX®, Ralco’s unique approach to efficiently and effectively implementing net energy concepts. This method allows Ralco to calculate what the best return over feed cost would be for that customer in their given situation. It is truly unique to each farm and grower scenario.
This tool maximizes feed efficiency and helps reduce the diet cost per pig for producers. It makes the most efficient diet when producers don’t have fat as a tool in their toolbox.
Let the team of experts at Ralco help you analyze your diets to meet the specific needs of your farming operation.